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A sex offender who arranged to meet a schoolgirl he believed was 14 at a Southend Travelodge has been jailed for five years.

Marcel Romanowski, 28, travelled to the hotel in February 2025 after exchanging sexual photographs and graphic messages about taking her virginity. The girl, who was actually 13, fled the room after two minutes and staff called Essex Police.

Basildon Crown Court heard the pair had met on the adults-only dating app Badoo in January 2025 after she messaged him. In the days before the meeting, Romanowski searched online about the age of consent and what would happen if a 14-year-old became pregnant.

“You believed that she was 14 and you were making enthusiastic preparations to take her virginity,” Judge Samantha Cohen told him.

“Within a few messages, it was clear that the purpose for both you and her was to meet up for sex.”

Defence barrister Chris Martin said the case arose from “rather peculiar circumstances”, adding: “This was not Mr Romanowski scouring the internet… He was genuinely only using adult-only dating sites… In a nutshell, it was him that was singled out by the child and not the other way around.”

A trial earlier this year heard the girl had contacted multiple adult men on the app. After moving to WhatsApp, she told him she was 14 and under 18. “You were not deterred by her age,” the judge said. “You said that was okay and you immediately resumed your messaging with her.”

Their messages were “highly sexual” and they exchanged images. Romanowski forwarded one of the girl’s images to a friend — an offence of distributing an indecent image of a child for which he was not charged. “You demonstrated a callous disregard for her privacy and her dignity,” Judge Cohen said.

The judge noted he had messaged 159 adult women that week and was “completely obsessed with sex”. As he drove to Southend he watched pornography about virgins, but the girl was getting cold feet. CCTV from a fast-food restaurant showed her looking “obviously nervous and uncomfortable”.

Romanowski texted her to follow him outside so others would not see them together. “That is because you knew that what you were doing was both morally and legally wrong,” the judge said.

They were in the Travelodge room for only two minutes before she fled. She later accused him of sexual assault, but the jury failed to reach a verdict and prosecutors did not seek a retrial.

Romanowski, formerly of Cheney Road in Danbury, was convicted of sexual communication with a child, inciting a child to engage in a sexual act, meeting a child following sexual grooming and possession of cannabis.

He was sentenced to five years in prison, placed on the sex offenders register for life and made subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting his internet use and contact with children.

Judge Cohen told him:

“You, Mr Romanowski, were the adult in this situation and you could and of course should have stopped what was happening, immediately reported her to Badoo and never gone to meet her.”

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A man from Banbury that police describe as a 'dangerous offender' has been sent to prison for sexually abusing a child.

Colin Lomas, of High Furlong, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (March 13).

The 59-year-old was also been placed on a sexual harm prevention order for life.

The sentencing comes after the Banbury man pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a child under 13, in Oxfordshire in the past five years.

Detective Constable Samantha Hunter of the Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “I am pleased that Lomas has been sentenced to jail and will be the subject of a prevention order for life.

“He is clearly a dangerous offender who is a danger to children.

“I would like to pay tribute to the victim in coming forward and I hope that the conviction allows her and her family to move on with their lives.

“We hope that this case shows that we are committed to investigating sexual offences and would encourage anyone who believes they have been a victim of a sexual offence to please come forward.”

Colin Lomas was arrested on July 26, 2023, and charged on January 25, 2024.

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THE face of a young man jailed for jailed for assaulting a 14-year-old vulnerable girl with the mental capacity of an 11-year-old has been revealed in an official police photograph.

Benjamin Brookes, of Brunswick Place in Banbury, was found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity after a week-long trial at Oxford Crown Court.

The 26-year-old was found not guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.

He was jailed for three and a half years at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, February 29.

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A sexual predator who abused two young girls after plying them with alcohol and cannabis kept his head in his hands during a Sheffield Crown Court hearing, as he was forced to listen to the devastating impact of his crimes.

Despite being judged to have 'no empathy whatsoever' for the two girls he abused, Darren Oldham barely looked up to face them as he was brought to justice, during a hearing held at the court on February 7, 2024.

Sending Oldham, aged 35, to prison, the judge - Recorder Ian Mullarkey - said his sexual abuse had 'touched almost every aspect' of his victims' lives, and had caused 'perhaps irreparable damage'.

One of the two girls - both of whom were just 14-years-old at the time of Oldhams offending - said she has not been in education since the abuse took place, and has 'missed out' on taking her GCSEs. The girl, in her statement to the court, said she has also lost a dramatic amount of weight, going from eight-and-a-half to six stone, as she attempts to come to 'come to terms with what has happened'.

"I do not feel like myself anymore. [After the abuse] I couldnt shower or do anything without breaking into tears. After what happened, I began to look differently at men, I even began to look at my own granddad differently," she said, adding: "I already had anxiety and depression, but obviously this has made it worse, a lot worse."

"Ive lost all my friendswe were close before but since this I dont want to do anything. For the last year Ive done nothingIve changed as a person since Darren did this to me, and its not changed since."

Speaking directly to Oldham through her statement, his second victim told him: "You ruined my mental health, you made me want to take my own life because of the trauma you caused. I struggle going to schoolI feel like every male will hurt me. You made me feel like that. I feel a shell of a person whos angry because of the trauma in my life."

"I hope you get punished, you deserve to rot in jail," she continued.

The court was told how Oldham abused the two girls - who are not known to each other - in separate incidents, which took place in Rotherham and Cornwall, seven months apart.

Prosecutor, Michael Collins, told the court that Oldham gave both and alcohol prior to carrying out the sex offences.

In addition, in both cases, the two girls were rendered unconscious - with one falling asleep after being given cannabis and one being knocked unconscious after he forced her head back, causing her to hit it on a rock - during the course of Oldhams abuse.

The shameless sex offender persisted with the abuse while the girls - neither of whom can be named for legal reasons - were unconscious, and they both awoke to find him on top of them, the court heard.

Recorder Mullarkey told Oldham: "What we have here are two 14-year-old girls intoxicated by you, asleep or unconscious. Its difficult to think of a more vulnerable situation."

He added: "There was this pattern here, of plying young girls with intoxicants."

Mr Collins said that after abusing one of the girls, he pretended to be asleep after she pushed him off, and fled the scene after the other girl 'screamed' out for help.

Oldham was wanted by South Yorkshire Police for several months, before being located charged with sex offences in connection with the two incidents in November 2023.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of assault on a female 13 and over by penetration with part of body/a thing at an earlier hearing.

Defending, James Baird said Oldhams best point of mitigation was his guilty pleas, which were 'effectively entered' at his first hearing before Sheffield Crown Court.

Mr Baird continued: "Your Honour knows he is the product of the care system, taken into care at the age of 11he started abusing drugs at a very early age, 12 or 13, and there is also a serious drink problem."

Mr Baird said Oldhams substance misuse issues intensified following the death of his daughter, adding that he was intoxicated at the time of both sets of offences, something Mr Baird said he advanced as an explanation, but did not seek to suggest it as a point of mitigation.

Referring to the conclusions reached by the author of Oldhams pre-sentence report, Recorder Mullarkey told him: "You have no empathy whatsoever for the victims of your offending, and fail to recognise the seriousness of your offending."

He jailed Oldham, of Middleton Road, Banbury, for nine years, and said he felt it necessary to also impose an extended licence period of three years - bringing his total sentence to 12 years.

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A convicted sex offender told police they would find his CV on a seized memory stick – before coming clean and explaining it contained sick child sex abuse images, a court heard.

Christopher Brown, 34, was also found to have flouted the terms of his sex offender notification requirements by spending the night in an – adult – woman’s bed, spending more than 12 hours living away from his registered home.

When police contacted the woman at the start of this year, she was unaware that the man with whom she had been sleeping was a three-times convicted sex offender. She had been seeing the man since October 2021. 

 Brown claimed to have been confused about what he could do under the terms of his notification requirements. He even produced a ‘schedule’ for detectives, trying as best he could to list the times and dates he had been at the woman’s home.

Prosecutor Alex Radley told Oxford Crown Court that during a first search of his home, Brown initially suggested that his curriculum vitae would be found on a memory stick that had not been registered with police.

Later, he confessed: “I’ll be honest. My CV isn’t on the memory stick. There’s stuff there I shouldn’t have.”

The defendant’s devices were analysed and, in total, he had 804 images and videos in the worst category, 252 in category B and 43 category C videos. He had three ‘extreme’ pornographic videos.

Brown, of South Street, Banbury, admitted possession of indecent images and breaching sex offender notification requirements.

The court heard he was first put on the sex offender register in 2016, when he was given a suspended sentence for indecent exposure. The 10 week sentence was later activated after he failed to comply with the court order.

He had since been convicted of having indecent images of children and breach of a sexual harm prevention order. 

A probation officer, going through her pre-sentence report with the judge in court, said she was recommending an immediate prison sentence – to the slight surprise of the judge.

Brown had been given a number of previous chances to comply with the probation service, she said.

Mitigating, Gordana Austin said her client recognised his offences had been committed when he was ‘on his own, lonely’. From living on his own, he had moved back in with his parents.

He was said to have previously worked as a chef then cycled through agency jobs before being taken on as a handyman on constructions sites – a job that he enjoyed.

Recorder Paul Reid jailed the defendant for a total of two years. 

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Jamie Mobbs, 27, claimed he was lonely and had been looking for a girlfriend. He told the 'girl', with whom he chatted on Facebook and Instagram, his real name, age and profession – before peppering her with sexual topics and asking her to send explicit images of herself.

Sentencing him to two years' imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Michael Gledhill QC told Mobbs he should be 'thoroughly ashamed' of himself.

He said: "You are a rather pathetic character who lives a very lonely, isolated life. You may very well want a normal life and to meet somebody to have a proper relationship with and I fully understand that. You do not go about that by seeking out 13-year-old girls."

Prosecutor Isobel Delamere told Oxford Crown Court that Mobbs had begun chatting to the 'girl' on Facebook on February 6, 2020.

The 'girl' – actually a decoy account operated by a so-called paedophile hunter vigilante group – told him she was 13 and from Watford. Mobbs said he was 27, a factory cleaner and asked for a photograph of her in her school uniform.

Later in the day, he turned the conversation to relationships and asked her to send pictures of her underwear. He also sent her pornographic images.

He continued to send explicit messages and even asked offered to pay her £500 to 'cuddle and kiss me and suck my w***y'. He offered to show her his genitals but warned her against telling others. Mobbs also sent three videos of himself performing a sex act.

The defendant spoke about coming to Watford to have sex with the girl and sent a link to Google Maps showing how long the journey down would take.

He was confronted at his home in Banbury on February 9 by members of the vigilante group and the police were called.

Interviewed by officers, Mobbs claimed he'd been trying to explain to her 'how relationships work' and said the video of him performing the sex act on himself was 'more educational'. There were no indecent images of children on his phone, but he had searched for terms including 'how old do you have to be to wear a thong'.

Mitigating, Gordanna Austin said her client had a number of learning difficulties including autism and Asperger's Syndrome that would make an immediate prison sentence particularly difficult. He was remorseful and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Mobbs, of School View, Banbury, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence. He had no previous convictions.

He was ordered to pay £1,000 costs, carry out up to 50 rehabilitation days and abide by a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. He will be a registered sex offender for 10 years.

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A secondary school teacher who sexually assaulted a vulnerable teenage pupil has been jailed.

Ricky Sedani, 36, of Ellison Drive in Banbury, Oxfordshire, had earlier been found guilty at Luton Crown Court of sex offences involving a girl at a Bedfordshire school in 2015.

She came forward when a previous sex offence, for which he received a suspended sentence, was reported in the media.

He was given a 12-month sentence.

Sedani was found guilty of five offences of sexual activity with a child by a person who was in a position of trust and two offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The court was told the offences had taken place at the school between April and July 2015.

The married teacher would get the girl on her own to touch her intimately and press himself against her. He also said he wanted to have sex with her and asked her to perform a sex act on him.

Sedani had pleaded guilty in 2017 to sexually touching and sending lewd messages to another student.

He received a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and when the case was reported the victim in the second case told her mother he had sexually assaulted her two years before.

Prosecutor Peter Shaw said the offences involved planning, grooming and targeting of the youngster, who he knew to be vulnerable.

Passing sentence, Judge Lynn Tayton QC said: "You recognise what you did was grooming and you said as much to her."

Sedani had made the girl promise never to tell anyone about what was happening, telling her it would ruin his life, she said.

Det Con Kerry Smith, who worked on the investigation, said Sedani's actions were "abhorrent".

"He abused his position of authority, took advantage and violated the trust of two young girls who looked up to him as their teacher."

The court heard Sedani was no longer able to teach.